


Promiscuous But Not So

by Carpet_Church



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Clubbing, El just really likes what she sees ;), F/M, Kali Is The Same Age, Mike forgets to be a people, Mileven, Suggestive Themes, Upside Down is a Nightclub lol, no powers, other things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 03:21:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20075275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carpet_Church/pseuds/Carpet_Church
Summary: Mike is not one for the nightlife, or any life for that matter. At his friends insistence, he finds himself in a newly opened nightclub. There he encounters a woman like he's never met before.Can this woman reawaken Mike from his stupor? Or is Mike doomed to be alone?





	Promiscuous But Not So

**Author's Note:**

> This only happened because Promiscuous played on Spotify, oops. 
> 
> That's the vibe song for sure.
> 
> *8/11/19: Cleaned some stuff up, added some words.  
Chapter 2 is started. Will hopefully be posting it later tonight or tomorrow.

November 11, 2006

  
  
  


The Chicago night life was never something that interested Mike. 

No, he had a future to prepare for, one filled with mountains of paperwork, diagnostics, and surly bosses. 

At least, if his father had anything to say about it.

In his constant, incessant studying for his business degree, Mike had forgotten what it was like to be social. Granted, before college, he was not what one would categorize as a “social-butterfly”. He still attended functions, club meets, a few football games, and even a handful of parties. The silent thrill of just going with the motions of mob, being part of the whole, was something Mike didn’t realize he craved. 

___________

In fact, he hadn’t noticed it until his friends pointed it out to him.

Lucas and Max, had introduced Will, Dustin, and himself to a few of her friends from her classes. The two groups had run into each other by accident at the bar Will’s brother Jonathan owned, Castle Byers. 

A few pleasantries were exchanged. The conversation was mostly steered by Max. Lucas, and Dustin. Even Will jumped in a few times to add his opinions on the heated debates between  _ Friends  _ and  _ The Office  _ that had sprouted in the cramped circle-booth in the corner of the bar.

Hell, even Jonathan, who was covering the bar that night since the scheduled bartender was out sick, jumped in once or twice.

That just left Mike.

Who had not, until Max’s other friends left for the night, said a single,  _ damn  _ word.

And Mike’s friends, sure as hell noticed.

“Dude, Mike are you good?” Lucas said, turning to him as Max’s friends were out of earshot.

“Yeah, bud you’ve been awfully quiet lately, We’re not going to have to start calling  _ you  _ Will are we?” Dustin added, laughing as he elbowed Will. 

“Don’t under-hand insult Will, you asshat. Besides, I just don’t know those people like you guys do.” Mike stated, annoyed at the sudden investigation.

“Mike,” Will started, placing a friendly hand on his shoulder, “We just met those people, too.” 

“Now that you guys mention it,” Max interjected as she wrapped her left arm around Lucas’ middle. “Wheeler has been more quiet than his usual introverted self.”

“GASP! Michael has forgotten how to socialize!” Dustin announced while dramatically fainting onto Mike, “OH WOE IS HE! He who forgets thy manners!”

Dustin continued the spectacle in the middle of the booth for approximately two seconds before Mike shoved him off and into Lucas.

“Look, I appreciate the concern... Well actually, I don’t appreciate it, and I’m not sure if whatever this is counts as concern... But I’d rather not have you guys harping on me for being quiet. Will was quiet all the time, and it was never an issue.” Mike said with a huff.

“Well yeah, that’s because Will the Wise only spoke to offer sage wisdom and guidance when the situations were most dire.” Dustin started, “Michael, our  _ paladin _ , always stood his ground and defended us from the  _ terrors of the dark _ .” 

He punctuated with a trilling of his fingers and a ghostly  _ ooooh _ .

“Dustin, we’re 21.” Mike retorted. “I’m sure you all can protect yourselves from the ‘terrors of the dark’ by now.” Mike responded with a sarcastic trill of his own.

“His point still stands, Mike. Our paladin has lost his way.” Lucas added biting into a cold nacho chip, “We can’t have you being a quiet loner, we’re a party man. It’s not the same without you.”

Mike said nothing as he took a long sip of his beer.

Dustin, in a strange roundabout way, had a point.

Mike was the Paladin, steadfast in protection of his comrades and party-members. And yet, he could barely talk to new people.

Dustin suddenly got wide-eyed and excited as he slammed his hand down onto the table, causing empty bottles and appetizer plates to rattle.

“I got it! I know what Mike needs!” Dustin said smugly, pausing dramatically to wait for someone to ask what he had in mind.

Everyone knew better than to take Dustin’s bait. It was a surefire way to get roped into a ridiculous idea or situation, and The Party had enough of those to last a lifetime, thank you very much.

After, a few very tense seconds, it was painfully aware that no one wanted to give into Dustin’s machinations. 

Sadly, Will the ‘Not So Wise as to Avoid Asking the Ill-Fated Question’, sighed and took the bait.

“Alright Dustin, what is you-” Will started, sighing.

“GLAD YOU ASKED!” Dustin interrupted triumphantly, again slamming his hand on the table.

Will, the rest of The Party, Jonathan, and the nearly passed out man at the bar, immediately regretted the decision.

“What Mikey-Boy needs…” He paused, “Is the touch of a woman!” 

Mike, choked on the last dregs of his beer and sprayed it all back out. 

The bar was dead silent. 

Jonathan, for all his maturity, excused himself with barely contained hysterics as he fled to the door behind the bar that led into the kitchen.

Max and Lucas burst out howling laughter, and Will, for his infinite credit, contained his giggle in a barely hidden smirk.

Mike glared white-hot fire at Dustin as he coughed his lungs out.

Satisfied with the varying reactions his proclamation spawned, Dustin continued.

“I mean think about. Everyone knows that getting laid is the Numero Uno confidence booster to any aspiring man. Look at the evidence, Lucas and Mike were practically the same person before Max arrived and took a ride on the Ranger-train. Now he’s, like, semi-tolerable.” 

Lucas’ demeanor switched easily to a glare mirroring Mike’s.

“Max was an irritable bitch before she finally let Lukey melt her ice-caps.” Dustin continued. “And Will is Will. Dick-Magnet extraordinaire, you’re the best Will.” He finished, blowing a faux-kiss to Will.

Max and Will locked eyes with each other in silent agreement. Both of them reevaluating the losses they’d sustain by murdering Dustin, they found the potential risks just  _ slightly  _ out-weighing the benefits. Dustin got to live for one more day.

Mike finally remembered how to breathe as the last drops of beer exited his windpipe.

“Like, you're the one to talk. You’re in the same boat as I am.” Mike strangled placing his empty glass down.

“That’s where you’re wrong Michael, my good buddy.” Dustin’s already impish grin grew three sizes.

“...Who had sex with  _ you _ ?” Lucas and Mike asked incredulously. 

“Remember Suzie, from Science Camp?” Dustin answered.

It took a few moments for all of them to exercise their collective memories. In that time, Jonathan came back through the kitchen doors, red-faced and teary-eyed. From what we can only presume.

The sound of a light-bulb flickering on was almost audible as The Party collectively re-remembered Suzie, who visited Dustin a couple of years back.

“No way!” Lucas.

“Yeah right!” Max.

“Bullshit!” Mike.

Dustin held-up his hands in defense, “Hey, we all know she visited me two years back. On that Saturday, I got mom out of the house...” 

Dustin sighed wistfully, “the rest is history.”

Coordinated eye-rolls swept through the bar. 

“Look, I’m getting side-tracked. This can have a double-use. This can help Mike regain the little drops of charisma he possessed, _and_... it might help him get over Jennifer.” Dustin suggested. “Two stones, one bird.”

Will piped up, “I think you mean two birds one st-.”

“What the  _ FUCK _ , Dustin?” Mike interrupted, his voice shaking slightly as anger seeped into his voice. “What happened to us agreeing not to talk about that!”

“Yeah, we did agree. You were still hurting from what she did. It made sense at the time, but you’re obviously not in any better shape than how you were. And that was what, almost a year ago now?” Dustin stated. “Maybe it’s time to talk about it, maybe you should put yourself back out there.”

The rest of The Party was silent. The nearly-passed out man, now thoroughly woken-up from Mike’s outburst dragged himself out of the bar and hailed a cab.

Mike said nothing as he finished out his wallet and threw a couple fives down on the table and put on his coat.

Will slid out of the booth at Mike’s silent request. He regarded the party with a middle-finger as he strode towards the door and into the cold Chicago night.

___________

“Dustin, what the fuck?” Lucas asked.

“Don’t give me that! I know we’re all thinking it. We’ve all  _ been  _ thinking it. Not my fault, I’m the only one with the stones to say anything about it.” Dustin muttered as he finished his beer.

“Still,” Will interjected, trying to maintain the peace, “I think the Jennifer thing was a little too far.”

“I don’t think so,” Dustin started “I think it needed to be said.”

Max, who had been in quiet contemplation for a second, leaned over and whispered something into Lucas’ ear. She then abruptly stood up and walked towards the now closing door.

“Oh now, what’s her problem?” Dustin muttered indignantly.

___________

“Wheeler, hey Wheeler wait!” Max called out to the tall figure retreating down the sidewalk as she stepped out of Castle Byers. “Mike!”

He stopped, “I don’t wanna talk right now, Mayfield.”

“What Dustin said was fucked.” Max blurted out, her voice becoming a misty cloud in front of her. She shivered, realizing she forgot her coat in the booth.

“Yeah… you can say th-” Mike started, turning towards her.

“But he’s right,” Max interrupted.

At this proclamation, Mike only a few feet away from her, visibly tensed. Partially illuminated by the blue neon sign of Castle Byers, Mike strode over to her.

“And since when do you care? In case you’ve gotten confused, I’m  _ not  _ Lucas.” Mike spat.

Max rolled her eyes and glowered up at Mike’s taller visage.

“I’m not starting this with you again, Wheeler.” Max said placing her hands on her hips, “You’re a hardass, but I wouldn’t hang out with you if I couldn’t at least tolerate you.”

“Ooh tolerate, huh? Don’t start getting sappy on me Mayfield.” Mike retorted, no humor gracing his voice.

“Look, you can sit here and clam up and forget how to talk to people. You can sit here and sulk about Jennifer, or whatever for all I care. I’m gonna try and give you an out, just this once. As a friend.” Max said giving a small shrug, “It’s honestly more than you deserve for being a bit of a crybaby bitch about all this.”

Mike looked at her, brow furrowed in contemplation. He looked her up and down trying to get a read on her. Max has always been a loyal friend. Despite Lucas and her relationship getting rocky at times, Max’s loyalty to The Party has never been called into question. She always maintained the little rules they all established all those years ago.

Mike pinched the bridge of his nose, a habit so reflective of his mother.

“No fucking way, I’m about to agree to this,” Mike muttered to himself, shaking his head.

With a huff, Mike deflated, “Alright, what did you have in mind?”

The corners of Max’s mouth upturned a fraction of an inch. 

“Me and couple girls I know are all heading to that new club downtown tomorrow.” Max started.

“Oh, Department of Energy?” Mike asked.

“No, the other one.”

“Snow Ball?

“No!”

‘Extra-Dimensional?” 

“Mike… that’s a Gay Bar.” Max exasperated.

“Hey! What you do outside the party is your business. I support you, just don’t dangle Lucas along please.” Mike said, teasingly the initial edge from the previous conversation was softening. 

“No, it’s called Upside Down. It’s the new-new-new nightclub apparently. It’s opening tomorrow. Be there or be square, I’m not holding your hand.” Max said shivering again. She decided she’s had enough Mike antics to last her a good while. Plus it was damn  _ cold! _

“Who comes up with these names?” Mike said shaking his head. “Alright Mayfield, I’ll bite. Don’t try to set me up with anyone. I want to do this… naturally.”

“Alright, alright. I won’t, but should you see someone who catches your eye. One of my friends is single...” Max said dragging along the last syllable in a sarcastic sing-song voice.

Mike chuckled lightly, starting to feel the bite of the cold air through his coat, “What time you guys gonna be there?”

“Wheeler, you just show up to a club! Stop planning and just go with it!” Max said turning inside.

“Ok, I’m inviting the guys though. Maybe not Dustin.” Mike added as he backed away down the sidewalk.

“Invite him, Party fighting isn’t fun for anybody.” Max said as she opened the door. “Goodnight Mike, see you there.”

“Yeah...” Mike spoke to the closing door. “See you there”.

  
  
_ Fuck _ .


End file.
